The present invention relates to paperboard containers, and more particularly, to foldable one-piece containers for packaging and storing relatively flat food, such as pizza pies or the like.
Takeout pizza is often not consumed in one sitting. There are usually leftovers which are kept in the box or stored in a separate container and put into a refrigerator. These are not optimal storage means, however. Wrapping and placing leftover pizza in a different container is messy, inconvenient, and wasteful. Likewise, using the pizza box itself for storage is difficult, due to the tight storage constraints of an average refrigerator.
Designers have attempted to produce reducible cartons for pizza pies by using full-sized pizza boxes that can be torn in two along prescored lines. See for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,071,062. This patent describes a pizza container having a removable upper lid and a lower portion that is foldable upon itself to result in a reduced size storage container. This particular container, however, is difficult to use, since it requires the user to fold the lower portion along lines that may be saturated with food oil or covered with food bits.
Thus, a need exists for a reducible pizza carton that is easy to use. Ideally, the carton should initially have a traditional pizza box shaped with reducibility features that do not hamper its functionality in any way. The setup and strength of the container should not be affected by the reducibility features, either. In an optimal arrangement, the leftover pizza need only be shifted to one side of the box and the container reduced in size without having to remove the pizza from the box. This should also be accomplished without requiring the user to fold cardboard along complicated lines and/or lines likely to have been saturated with food. The present invention is directed to fulfilling these needs and others as described below.
In accordance with aspects of the present invention, an improvement is provided for a pizza-style paperboard container. The container is formed from a single-piece blank and includes a first lateral panel, first and second opposed side panels hingedly connected to the first lateral panel, a second lateral panel, and third and fourth opposed side panels hingedly connected to the second lateral panel. As assembled, the first and second lateral panels are generally parallel to one another. The side panels are orthogonal to the lateral panels. The third and fourth side panels are adjacent and inward of the first and second side panels, respectively.
The improvement is for reducing the assembled container into a smaller-sized container. The improvement includes first and second separation lines formed in the first and second lateral panels, respectively. An additional fold line is provided in the first lateral panel at a location rearward of the first separation line. The material therebetween defines a closure flap. The first and second side panels each include a pre-formed hinge. The second lateral panel also includes opposed side panels. After the carton is first assembled in a conventional manner, it may be reduced in size by breaking the carton in two along the separation lines. The closure flap is then pushed inward while the hinges of the outer first and second side panels capture the inner third and fourth side panels, respectively.
In accordance with other aspects of this invention, the height of the closure flap is generally greater than the height of the side panels, so that the closure flap is at a forwardly oriented angle when closed.
An alternative embodiment is described in which the hinges may be eliminated and the closure flap is made to frictionally engage the second lateral panel. This is accomplished by forming the separation line of the closure flap in an forwardly arcuate shape and forming the fold line in a rearwardly arcuate shape. To reduce the assembled container into a smaller-sized container, the user breaks the container along the separation lines and the closure flap is folded along the fold line. The forwardly arcuate shape of the closure flap frictionally engages the second lateral panel, while portions of the inner third and fourth side panels are captured between the edges of the closure flap and the outer first and second side panels, respectively.